Dhaka, July 12 – BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Sunday said Health Minister Zahid Maleque should step down as Regent Hospital was allowed to conduct corona tests and treatment at the ‘behest of his ministry’.“The health minister and the Health Directorate are now at loggerheads. The Health Directorate is saying it wouldn’t have approved Regent Hospital to conduct tests had it not been instructed by the ministry,” he said.
The BNP leader further said, “Then who is responsible?” The health minister himself should resign immediately, and he should be put on trial for giving it (Regent Hospital) permission to carry out tests.”
He made the remarks while inaugurating Ziaur Rahman Foundation’s healthcare hotline for the Covid-19 patients through a virtual opening programme.
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) recently sealed off the head office of Regent Group and its hospital in the city’s Uttara and Mirpur areas on charges of issuing fake Covid-19 test certificates and collecting money from Covid-19 patients.
Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has recently said they made an agreement with Reget Hospital allowing it to treat the Covid-19 patients as per the instruction of the health ministry’s ‘higher authorities’.
Fakhrul said it is shameful and regrettable that Awami League men are indulging in irregularities in the name of coronavirus tests at this bad time of the nation. “The entire health system has collapsed due to widespread plundering.”
He alleged that people are going through serious ordeals losing their sources of income as the virus has spread everywhere badly for lack of effective preventive measures.
The BNP leader urged their party leaders and activists to work together to assuage public sufferings and unite people to get rid of ‘misrule repression, and plundering’. – UNB
